State v. A.J.

Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon Client is a local criminal and civil trial lawyer. Three years ago, on 5.5.2018 he was taking his wife to get waxed before her 4D Ultrasound. Yes, they were expecting their first child. While he is waiting in the car, another lady gets into her car and bumps his door and breaks his mirror. He gets out and lets her know she hit his car. She denies it ever happens. Rather than be confrontational he takes a picture of her and her license plate and goes into the waxing salon. The lady then gets on the cell phone and calls her husband to come down there and handle it. The guy “victim” double parks his jag in the fire lane and walks right into the salon at 11:50am and calls our client out.  Mind you our client is an African American male, 5’11” 240lbs with full sleeve tats, a beard, played full back for Texas A&M and has been a concealed hand gun owner for the past 10 years. The “victim” is also an African American male about 6’3” 215 with bulges in his pockets. (I even asked the jury in opening and closing: who walks in and calls our client outside when he is a big dude, unless you have the ultimate equalizer…).  Our client has no idea who this guy is but politely declines. The man tells our client that he threatened his wife and child and to get outside. Our client starts putting 2 and 2 together (even though he never saw a child) and says it’s a civil matter.  Guy that gets shot says then why didn’t you call the police and our client says again, cause it’s a civil matter. The guy then says: it’s no longer civil, it’s physical now. The owner of the shop asks them to leave because of this commotion. Client knows that he can’t stay and be a trespasser, so as they are walking towards the door, he sees a huge gun printing through the t-shirt in the small of the man’s back.  Our client draws his Glock .40 to defend himself if necessary. As the other guy opens the door, he spins back to face my client in the doorway. As he spins, he reaches for the small of his back.  Our client has no choice but to fire his weapon. He hits the man square in the chest and once under the right arm pit as the man spins instinctively after being shot. Our client get out of the doorway and gives the gun to his wife to put in her purse and surrenders peacefully to police. During the trial and investigation we were able to show the jury what appeared to be a big gun in the small of his back. Additionally, yes the man that was shot was an engineer, but he was also a convicted felon at the State and Federal level. He and his wife knew that he would go back to prison if he really had a gun, so conveniently the gun disappeared. We were able to show how his wife was a trauma nurse but did nothing to help her shot husband, instead ran back to her car (maybe to put something in it?) and then get her purse out and never let the police near her purse. Trial was a week long and one of the most contentious trials I’ve ever experienced. I tried it with Steve Gonzalez out of Brazoria who was simply masterful. He was amazing to watch in trial. We fought the DAs, Judge, and witnesses every day. The DAs only called witnesses that they liked their version. They constantly left out the truth and would only allow evidence in that helped them. Although we stipulated to all of the evidence, the State would object to evidence they didn’t like to be sustained by the Judge. In the end, the jurors got it right and gave our client his life back. Almost 3 years to the date, he was given a second lease on life.  Thank you so much to the ladies and gentlemen of that jury for seeing the truth and realizing that he acted in self-defense for his life. It was a very difficult case since no weapon was found on the man that got shot, but the jury understood that you can use deadly force against deadly force whether it’s a real gun or not, and it’s all in the mind of the person protecting themselves. Thank you to God and that jury for getting it right. I see our client around the courthouse. They are expecting their second child and he thanks God and them too. The man that was shot survived thanks to 4 heroic nurses that were close by and able to save his life. This case goes to show the real harsh reality when a licensed gun owner is in real fear for their life and what happens when they have to act to save your own life.